See Portraits of Some of the 700,000 Syrian Child Refugees

Thursday, Mar 17, 2016

About half of the 4.8 million Syrians who fled their homeland are children, and some of the most vulnerable live in dozens of makeshift tent camps, including in Jordan, which has taken in close to 640,000 refugees.

The U.N. agency for children said in a report this week that close to 3 million Syrian children are not in school as a result of the conflict, including some 700,000 refugee children.

The conflict, which entered its sixth year this week, has killed more than 250,000 people in Syria and displaced close to half the pre-war population of 23 million.

"We were forced to leave Syria, fearing for our children's lives," said Bandar al-Humaidy, 42, a father of 13 from Hama. Al-Humaidy now works on a farm near his makeshift tent camp.

"I dream of the day that all this bloodshed will stop and we will go back to our homeland and be able to protect our children and offer them peace and education," he said.

Here is a series of portraits and quotes from children in the tent settlements by Muhammed Muheisen, The Associated Press' chief photographer for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan.